


Fluke (The Pack Series)

by dearlydraupadi



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Accidental Bonding, Episode: s01e06 The Pack, F/F, F/M, Gen, Hyenas Are Matriarchal, M/M, Mates, POV Alternating, Rare Pairings, magic gone awry, minor crack
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-29
Updated: 2013-05-30
Packaged: 2017-12-13 08:06:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/821941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearlydraupadi/pseuds/dearlydraupadi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hyena's are matriarchal. When Xander gets possessed it's with the female alpha, and she has a much better idea of who should be his mate. Not that awful slayer girl, of course. No, better look closer to home, like that lovely Kyle boy. He would make a strong mate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mating

**Author's Note:**

> This is reposted from my site on ff.net, where it's been languishing for almost four years. Sorry about that! Anyway, I thought I'd yank it back from the grave, breath a little new life in, and finally finish this sucker.

Xander Harris thought that perhaps God, or whatever was up there, owed him a little payback. Karma. He figured he ought to win the lottery or meet a supermodel or something. Life flat out owed him, and it was going to pay up.

He shifted into a slightly more comfortable position on the bus bench and looked across at his two main girls. Wills and the Buffster were deep in conversation on their own bus bench torture device, leaving him with the unenviable empty seat beside him. It wasn’t that he resented their closeness, conversation, or even sitting together. Hell, if Jesse had been there, he and Xan would’ve probably been worse. But Jesse wasn’t there. Now Xander was the only one contemplating the meaning of brown vinyl as they rode to the zoo. 

That wasn’t why the world owed him.

Sure, the world owed him for Jesse too, but they could just add him to the tally. It was a long tally and he was starting to think it needed footnotes. Footnotes like, “Saved this guy from a vamp, and then he pantsed me literally a day later at school.” Or, “Have saved Buffy’s life again, but still no thanks and definitely no offer of a date.” Or, better still, “Bailed out Dad’s drunk and disorderly today. Still no love from parental figures. Getting better at paperwork though.”

At four in the morning.

There was no way his mom would’ve been sober enough to go, which left Xander pretending again to be his older and more mature nonexistent brother while dear old dad swore up and down that he would never touch the hard stuff again. They had a week until the court date, and two days until the promises wore off. By the time Xander had driven his parents home, it was time for school. And they wanted the car.

So, yeah, the universe owed him one. At least.

Xander kicked the seat in front of him. A male head whipped around and glared. Kyle. God this wasn’t his day.

“Watch it spaz!” came the expected insult, and really, was spaz still such an insulting word? Xander needed a moment to think about whether or not he should feel offended. “Do I need to tell Ms. Forwood you’re having a little ‘fit’?” Never mind.

Ms. Forwood was the head of the special education department at Sunnydale High, a fact Xander knew only too well. As it turned out, there was a difference between being functionally retarded and being lazy. Xander was lazy. Still, all the visits had given him a reputation for the former, and it seemed that Kyle was well informed. Dandy.

Gravel crunched beneath the bus tires as it pulled into the zoo parking lot. Kyle turned his attention to his minions and Xander let out a silent sigh. Kyle hadn’t been so bad up until a few years ago. In fact, they had even been on friendly terms for a while, at least before Kyle hit puberty like a brick wall and…changed.

He got hotter, for one thing.

Of course, Kyle’s hotness was really not on Xander’s mind ever. Nope. No siree. It was all ladies all the time for the Xandman. Don’t think about it don’t think about it don’t think about it – crap. 

Willow and Buffy were looking at him expectantly now. They’d waited, which was sweet, but he really could use the extra minute. Personally, Xander was considering falling asleep where he sat, but failing was worse than exhaustion, so he dutifully got up and piled out of the bus with the rest of the herd. Willow smiled at him and he stretched his facial muscles back. It was shaping up to be a long day.

With a Slayer on one arm and a Slayerette on the other, Xander led them into the zoo. Armed only with a vague knowledge of the park’s layout and a general sense of unease, he let the girls drag him off towards the reptile area.

And oh joy, Kyle was already there. Xander sighed, then faked a smile for Willow as she jabbered excitedly in his ear.

“…So many species! I can’t believe the zoo has so much funding!” she went on. Buffy nodded and tapped the glass on a snake’s cage. It didn’t move.

God, why did Kyle have to be everywhere? It was enough to make a guy a mite tetchy.

“Xander!” It was a Buffy screech, not a Willow screech. “They have a butterfly house! We so have to go in there!”

All he wanted was a nap. That’s all. Ooh, look, a park bench! Xander scanned to see if anyone was watching and, yep, Ms. Forwood was over there with her students, casting a wary eye at him. Oh crap, now she was looking concerned and “sensitive.” Balls.

“Sounds awesome, Buff,” was what he said instead, ignoring the sneer as he passed Kyle and headed out of the reptiles. Willow followed happily behind, untroubled by most things on this fine California day. Oh, to have Willow’s life.

Xander tried to enjoy the sensation of being covered in butterflies, but his mind kept drifting to other things, like his father’s upcoming trial. Defense attorneys didn’t come cheap, even in Sunnydale, and even if they could get one, the police seemed pretty confident in their ability to put Anthony Harris away for a few months. And all the lawyers who did pro-bono in Sunnydale really, really hated his Dad. For obvious reasons.

This was torture.

“Come ON, Xander!” 

He followed the Willow voice leading him towards the zebras. It looked like Buffy was striking out on her own. That was just as well. One less person to please.

Wow. That was a lot of stripes.

Mating zebras had a way of making all of his problems seem monumentally less important, or at least less interesting, so long as he was mesmerized by the vague sense of intrigue and nausea. So many stripes. Plaid almost. Ugh. Horses shouldn’t bend like that.

Willow was bouncing up and down next to him, and he couldn’t decide if that was more or less disturbing than the zebra sex itself.

Dammit, he could see Kyle again, lurking a little ways away and scowling. He was alone, and Xander toyed with the idea of going over there and asking him what his problem was, but dismissed it. Willow would wonder, and this was something he and Jesse’d always tried to keep her out of.

Willow spotted Buffy coming back, and hopped over to greet her.

“Hey! Buffy!” Xander yelled, figuring he might as well pretend to be her Xander-shaped friend.

“You missed it!” Willow said.

“Missed what?” Buffy asked, her attention obviously elsewhere.

“We just saw the zebras mating,” Xander said, nodding towards the still hyper Willow. “Thank you, very exciting.”

“It was like the Heimlich, with stripes!”

Buffy did not appear to be nearly devastated enough. “And I missed it,” she said. “Yet somehow I’ll find the courage to live on.”

Well someone was a little miss pouty-pants today.

Willow remained blissfully oblivious. “Where were you?”

“I was looking at the fishes.”

“Was it cool?” Willow, bless her heart, just didn’t know when to give up.

“It was fishes.”

“I’m feeling you’re not in the field trip spirit here,” Xander said. Inside, he rolled his eyes. If anyone had a right to be in a funk, it was him, but he was making nice. She could just stuff it.

Buffy was making some excuse about doing this trip every year at her old school. Ah yes, the old school. The one that kicked her out. Love you too, Slayer. Seriously, though, how hard could her life be? She was a hot chick with superpowers. And her mom was awesome.

Xander sometimes pretended Joyce was his mom. Once she’d caught him, and it had been a little awkward for a few days, but she seemed to let it slide. Which really just made his infatuation worse. 

But not, like, in a sexual way. That would be weird. And gross. Ew.

“Buffy, this isn’t just about looking at a bunch of animals,” he said, burying his ick. “This is about not being in class!”

She brightened and he winced inside. “You’re right,” she said, “suddenly the animals look shiny and new.”

“Gotta have perspective,” he said, mask firmly in place as he watched Kyle and company approach some guy…Larry? Lenny? Lance! That was it. It looked like they were pulling their usual stuff when Flutie intervened and Lance…defended them?

Xander geared up to go over there. Lance was an okay guy, and Kyle was just going to screw him up. They were heading to the Hyena House. Great.

Willow perked up behind him. “What are Kyle and his buds doing with Lance?”

“Playing with him as a cat plays with a mouse,” he said, grimacing.

“What is it with those guys?” asked Buffy.

“They’re obnoxious. Professionally,” said Willow.

“Well, every school has ‘em,” he said. “So you start a new school, you get your desks, some blackboards, and some mean kids.” Except that wasn’t it. That wasn’t it at all. Xander wanted to know what made Kyle tick, and he wanted to know now.

“Yeah, well, I’d better go extract Lance before…” Buffy said. Xander stopped her.

“I’ll handle it. This job doesn’t require actual slaying.” Plus, did Buffy have any idea how embarrassing it would be for Lance if a teensy little girl like Buffy saved him? He’d never recover. And Lance didn’t have much street cred to spare.

Plus, Kyle. He raced into the Hyena House, drawn inexorably towards the center. He could hear Kyle up ahead.

As he rushed into the main room, he knew he was right on time. The gang had Lance shoved up against the enclosure. Yeah, not a great idea. Xander ran up and pulled him down.

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own species?” he snapped at Kyle who looked even angrier than usual. Somehow.

“What, are you gonna get in my face?” said Kyle, stepping closer. Close enough that Xander could feel his breath and had just a moment to think about how deeply heterosexual this moment wasn’t – 

The hyenas growled, distracting them. They all looked down into the enclosure and into the primal eyes.

As the wave of magic and power rushed over him, Xander couldn’t help but think that this was not how he wanted the universe to pay him back.

*

Kyle opened his eyes to a thrum of power underneath his skin. He looked at the others, Tor, Heidi and Rhonda, and he could see that they all felt it too. And then there was that amazing scent rolling off of the man next to him. Kyle pressed into it, murmuring. It smelled like Alpha and strength and home. There was something else in the air, though, underneath all of that…prey!

Kyle turned around, dimly noting that the others followed. Lance was sprawled across the ground where he had tripped and the sight was just so pathetic that he had to laugh. But instead of his usual throaty laughter, what came out was a high, tense cackle that seemed to fit him like and old skin. The others joined in, all but Xander, who just turned and smirked.

It was the smirk that did it, really. Years afterwards, Kyle would swear that history would have been different had it not been for that little twitch of facial muscles.

Lance ran. The laughter increased.

Kyle turned and looked at Xander. He could feel himself panting for attention and what the hell was that about? It was like he needed to bend over for this pathetic loser and damn was Xander getting fine these days like his muscles had just come out and Kyle needed to lick it lick everything…

Really not cool. What the hell was Xander doing, making him think stuff like that? What the hell was he?

Alpha.

Wait, Xander fucking Harris was the Alpha? This was just too much. Too much sexiness…aw fuck.

With a snarl, Kyle launched himself at the still smirking Xander, intending to prove who was really Alpha. Xander let himself be thrown to the ground, and began to wrestle a bit, thoroughly enjoying it. Bastard. Kyle’s thoughts whirled. He was an imposter, not good enough for the pack, outsider…He tried to pin Xander, but Xander was larger and stronger and just reversed the situation.

Kyle lay pressed into the floor of the Hyena House as the others watched and he knew that he would have to find some way to prove himself again. They would never follow him after this. And that was important, somehow. Respect of the pack. Yeah.

“You smell amazing,” said Xander, nuzzling into the joint between his shoulders and neck, “like sunshine and warmth and submission and home.” He gave the area a few playful nips. “And waffles.”

Home. That was what Xander smelled like.

Wait—submission? He DID NOT smell like that, no matter what Xander “son of the town drunk” Harris said. Kyle ignored the voice urging him to tilt his neck and just relax, that Alpha would take care of him. That Alpha would make everything good again. He began to struggle against Xander’s hold. The bigger boy just smirked again. 

“Come on, Kyle,” he said, wiggling into a better position. Kyle groaned. “You know you want to. All the cool kids are doing it.” Heidi and Rhonda cackled. Tor just looked confused. Kyle’s eyes pleaded for an intervention, but Tor remained steadfast in his avoidance.

Xander’s head dipped back down to his shoulder joint. “Give in,” he said, “I’ll keep you safe.” As much as he wanted too, Kyle couldn’t fight the little voice any longer. Every time Xander spoke it got louder, and right now it was shouting. He slumped. Xander smiled in victory.

“You’re mine now,” he said, “all mine,” then bit down as hard as he could on Kyle’s shoulder. Kyle gasped as he was flooded with pain and an odd feeling of belonging and holy fuck endorphins. Goddammit, if Xander was kidding around about this…

Xander was still smiling as he stood up, and extended a hand to help Kyle. Kyle took it without thinking. Xander would take care of him. He belonged to Xander.

Tor whined at the back of his throat. Kyle watched as he went up to Xander. What, was Xander going to give him the whole dog and pony show too? Was that all it was, a welcome to the pack gift? He bit back a snarl. He had no right to be angry. He’d lost.

But Xander didn’t throw Tor to the ground or speak to him or fight him. He just walked up and bit him on the neck, just a little mark. He did the same for Heidi and Rhonda too. 

It looked like he was special then, or at least the only one who hadn’t been able to instantly adapt to Xander freaking Harris as Alpha. Kyle resisted the urge to go to Xander, then gave in as the other boy extended an arm towards him.

God he was pathetic.

“We should go,” Kyle whispered into Xander’s neck, right where the scent was strongest. Shit that was good. Though, really, nothing like shit. He had the strangest urge to cackle. “The bus is leaving soon.”

“Screw the bus,” said Xander, but slowly pulled away. He led them all back through the halls and into the open air. It smelled so much better here, so much freer. Kyle scented the air and smiled at Xander. He smirked back.

Cocky bastard.

He felt lighter now, as if he’d let go of a weight he’d carried for years. He felt stronger too, more powerful and more awake, like he’d been asleep since he was a child.

Ahead of him he could see Xander, but more than that, he could feel him. It was like he had a Xander-detector in his bones or something. It was always there now, humming away, letting him know if Xander was close. It was more than just keeping track of the Alpha, too. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he did. This was something deep and dark and it had to be related to the bite on his shoulder and the smell of home. 

Which was crazy. He was crazy. Oh god what was he going to tell his mom about the giant bite mark on his neck? That he had a new girlfriend and she was part vampire? Good luck with that.

They were at the buses, and Principal Flutie was standing out in front, tapping his watch. Kyle smirked a bit at that, and Xander looked behind to share in the joke.

His Xander-detector thrummed with joy. Weird.

As they climbed on board, Kyle could see the two little bitches that hung off Xander looking his way, their eyes wide with concern. He hadn’t broken their toy, promise. The redhead was whispering something thing Buffy’s ear. He would bet a kidney they were talking about him. And he liked his kidneys.

Xander flopped into an empty seat, and pulled Kyle down with him. Kyle railed for a minute. He was a person and not a possession, dammit!

Alpha, good, strong.

Shut up creepy head voice.

The other three managed to squeeze into the seat directly in front of them. And so, all students finally accounted for, the bus took off, and with it, Kyle’s feelings of safety. He got motion-sick at the best of times, but right now he felt like being on the moving bus was actually making his soul sick.

He whimpered softly, but apparently not softly enough, because Xander heard him.

“What is it?”

Kyle curled in tighter and tried to tell himself that soon he would get off the bus and he could lie in the grass and not move. Which, what?

“Kyle?”

His Alpha was asking him something. He should answer his Alpha.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hurts,” said Kyle, through clenched teeth. “Feels wrong.”

“What feels wrong?”

Being on this abomination. 

He didn’t say that. It was weird. “I get motion sick sometimes.”

Xander nodded and wrapped an arm around Kyle’s shoulders. They ignored the mutterings around them. There would be a time for dealing with those later. Besides, Xander had nice arms. Which was something he’d never noticed before, obviously. Yeah.

“Concentrate on me, Kyle,” he said, and Kyle tried to comply. He let the scent of Alpha-strong-home wash over him, and it helped, even if it didn’t make it all better.

But it seemed to have helped enough, because now the bus was pulling in to the Sunnydale High parking lot, and stopping, thank God and all the powers that be. Kyle breathed out his nausea and stood on shaky feet. Xander watched him closely, and that knowledge alone allowed him to walk off the bus.

Heidi, Tor and Rhonda gathered around him in the parking lot, speaking low words of comfort. Xander was a solid presence at his back, and he basked in the feeling of family.

Buffy and her minion were still glaring at him, so he took the time to send her a snarl back, his eyes glinting green just a bit. That sent them packing! He smirked and turned his attention back to Xander and the pack.

The pack. His pack. He had a pack now?

“Where now?” said Kyle, breathing deep.

“Anywhere but here,” said Xander.

“Sounds like a plan,” said Tor, already gearing up to go.

“But Kyle,” whined Heidi, “I left my stuff inside.”

Kyle shrugged. He didn’t really care either way.

“Shut up!” snapped Tor. “Alpha said we’re leaving.”

“Leave her alone,” yelled Rhonda. 

Xander looked at Kyle and raised an eyebrow. Kyle flushed. Sometimes his pack could be a bit immature. And again, pack?

“We have time for a stop,” said Xander, magnanimously settling the issue without addressing the dissension in the ranks. Tor seemed to think that whatever Xander said was the law, and the girls were just happy to get their own way.

Kyle didn’t really need anything inside, so he was perfectly happy to be dragged along by Xander. Well, most of him was perfectly happy. He was carefully stomping on the rebellious bits that insisted on shouting about public places and homophobia. Instead of listening, he just smiled as Xander pressed him up against a locker.

“You’re doing it again,” said Xander.

“Doing what?”

“Smelling way too damn good,” Xander breathed into the side of his neck.

Kyle just barely managed to keep himself from moaning.

“You’re all mine,” said Xander, nuzzling the bite he’d made earlier.

“And you?” said Kyle. “Are you all mine too?” Whoa, whoa, whoa. Was he nearly making out in the high school halls? With a dude? With Xander?

What. The. Hell. Except, he really wanted Xander to kiss him.

Kyle held his breath in anticipation. His Xander-sense was driving him off the wall with its purr. Xander pulled back to answer, only to be interrupted.

“Xander?” It was the redheaded one that followed him around. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Xander growled low in his throat as he pushed off of Kyle and the wall. “Hold that thought,” he said as he walked over to the intervening harpy. She led him into another hallway for some ‘privacy’, and Kyle let his head fall back against the wall.

…Only to whip it around double quick as Buffy Summers, in all her psychotic little glory, slammed him against the wall.

“Alright mister,” she said, “answer quick and I’ll let you keep your ribcage: what did you do to my Xander?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xander and Kyle face off against the Scoobies, Xander finds out what head injuries do to a concussion, and Tor mopes about being left in the parking lot while everyone else has fun. Again.

Xander was not happy. He was not happy in an epic running-through-the-Savannah-chasing-prey-barking-at-the-sky way. He wanted out. He wanted to crawl out of his skin because it was too tight, itchy, vibrating with energy and power and magic. Lots of magic. He could smell it and it was like fried bananas. It made his stomach turn.

Need mate.

He shook that thought off quickly. Kyle was fine. He was fine. They were only a hallway apart, after all. A hallway apart in Sunnydale High, home of the Hellmouth. Oh Goddess. No. No, he was choosing to believe that Kyle was fine.

Oh right, Willow. She was the reason he wasn’t pressed against a nice willing mate right now. And whoa, gay thoughts, where did you come from?

“We’re worried, Xander,” Willow said, probably wrapping up some long intervention speech he had blissfully tuned out. Well, maybe not blissfully, but the effect was the same. She waited for a response. It was just like math class all over again.

“I’m fine,” he said, and forced his smile to reach his eyes.

“It’s just different,” she said.

“What is?” he said.

“You and Kyle being all, you know, with the naughty touching and the not growling,” Willow blushed and Xander basked in the memory of said naughty touching. Hey, he was sixteen. He’d take what he could get, even if it was from his arch-nemesis.

His incredibly sexy and good-smelling arch-nemesis.

“We still growl,” he said, distracted by thoughts of a pliant Kyle, “just in a good way.” He trailed off. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Ignorance was not a convincing look on Willow, Xander noted as he strained to hear more.

“It sounded like a thump,” he said. A thump coming from Kyle’s last known location.

Mate. MATE!

Every sense screamed at Xander to run, so he did, clawing past the redhead in his way and tearing down the hallway. There it was! The Slayer was threatening His Mate. How dare she? He screeched to a halt and stood beside Buffy and Kyle, not at all winded, but glowering.

“Put him down.”

Kyle met his eyes and he was almost overjoyed to see relief in them. His instincts told him that this was good. It meant that Kyle was accepting his leadership and was fully submitting. In the back of his mind, Xander’s much neglected common sense just threw up his hands in defeat and went for a drink.

There was still Buffy to deal with, though.

“DOWN!” he growled, and she complied without thinking, dropping Kyle, then scowling at Xander.

“Maybe I should be asking you the questions,” she said, reaching around to grasp something in her back pocket. Kyle skittered around to hide behind Xander, an action that almost made him purr.

“You come here, assault my mate, and you’re asking me questions?” he said, disbelief bleeding through.

“Who are you, and what have you done with Xander?” the little blonde pedantically continued, brandishing the dagger she had drawn.

“Uh, I am Xander.” He really hated to burst her bubble…ooh, he could smell his mate. Nice mate, nice smell. Nice everything, really. Except the angry blonde.

“My Xander doesn’t talk to me like that.” 

Stupid girl.

“Really,” he said. “Your Xander?”

“Yes,” she huffed, “he’s my friend.” 

“First off,” he had to concentrate very hard not to pounce on her and claw at her vocal cords until he tore them out, her hands scrabbling to gain purchase on the tile as he slowly crushed her windpipe… “Friends are not property. And secondly, overreacting much?”

He may have been able to smell the magic, but he was pretty sure she couldn’t.

“Xander’s not gay.”

“Okay,” he said, “I think we’re going now.” Kyle gave a little nod of assent and they turned to bolt. 

“Wait a minute,” said Buffy. “You forgot something.”

Xander spun on his heel out of courtesy and faced her. “What?”

“This.”

‘This’ was apparently the union of her fist and his face, a fact he realized as he slumped to the suddenly soft and appealing ground. The last thing he saw before the stars went out was a stunned Kyle going down to a swing of Willow’s book bag. Traitorous bitch.

*

Black. Thudding pain. Screeching laughter. A hot, dry wind that smelled of dust and death. Earth. Fried bananas. Silence.

When the hyena opened her eyes she was confused. All she could see were bars on a cage, and all she could feel was a cool, smooth ground. 

Tile.

Her body was strange and new. Two legs, and arms now, like the men she sometimes hunted. Pale and furless, only a little crop of hair on top that she could feel. Male. That was new. Though the shape was pleasantly familiar.

She seemed to remember this body, as she seemed to remember that the ground was called tile, and that the place she sat was called the book-cage in the library. She wasn’t sure what those words meant, but she knew that she had to get out. She had a wounded mate to help, and these people were keeping her prisoner!

She snarled at the two figures standing on the other side of the bars. The old man was mumbling and fidgeting with his glasses while the yapping blonde child stared at her. The hyena stood and lunged at them. Keep her locked up would they? She would get out! She would GET OUT!

She needed her mate. Her skin was starting to itch and she knew that she had to complete the mating or else it would get worse and she would start to hurt and she just needed to be close to her mate who smelled so nice and was so soft…Where was he? What had they done with him?

She sniffed the air, and found that she couldn’t smell anything. Well, that wasn’t true. She could smell herself and the man and the girl and the books and the cage, but no mate. Compared to her old nose, this new body’s nose was pathetic. She leaned forward instead and listened to the old one and yapping girl’s conversation.

“That’s not Xander,” said the girl.

“No, it would seem not,” said the man.

“Giles!” whined the girl. The hyena winced at the sound. “Fix him!”

“Well, we do need to ascertain what the trouble is first…Has Kyle said anything yet?”

Mate! They had her mate somewhere and were questioning him. She had to find him. Then she could make them pay.

“Dontcha think it’s time I was a bit more persuasive?” said the girl, vibrating with excitement. 

The hyena growled softly. For every hair of her mate’s head that they touched, she would break a bone.

“I’m sure that won’t be necessary, Buffy,” said the man. “You must remember that there is still a very human boy in there.”

“We don’t know that,” the girl sulked. “For all we know, he’s some kind of gayifying demon!”

The old man coughed. “That’s highly unlikely.”

The hyena had to agree with her captors there. She might not know much about this place, but that was still highly unlikely. She snapped her teeth at the blonde, who jumped back and armed herself.

The blonde growled. “Just fix my Xander!”

What if your Xander doesn’t want to be fixed, thought the hyena. She examined herself and felt no nagging sense of discomfort that suggested that her presence was unwanted. She just felt a bit off, and twitchy. She needed her mate.

They had to have him nearby, but far enough that she couldn’t smell him or sense him in any way. That put him somewhere in this building. He must be uncomfortable, as she was. She wanted open sky and the savannah, not four walls and a tiny window.

Window?

It was high up, and small, something that she ordinarily would have had little trouble crawling through, but now judged to be a tight squeeze. Still, if she could get her captors to leave for a moment, then she could make her escape and find her mate. She stretched out her senses, following the tingle and itch that told her of her mate. He was close, perhaps a fast run to the west. Now to get out of the cage.

The blonde yapping one would never let her go, so she was forced to wait as the two stopped talking. As she sat on the cool floor she thought of sand and wind, dry air and the scent of the long grasses. All she could smell now was sweat and children, dust and tile. She hated this place and this clumsy body. She wanted her mate and her pack. And some food.

The girl stormed out of the library, and the old man turned to regard her. The hyena wrestled against the need to slam herself against the walls of the cage again. She just knew that the blonde was going to Kyle now. Kyle was HERS! HER MATE!

She breathed. The only way out was the window, and the only way out the window was to get the old man to trust her. She delved deep within her borrowed mind and found a name and speech. 

“Giles?”

The old man started when she spoke, surprise etched in the lines around his mouth. 

“Good lord! You can talk?”

“Why wouldn’t I be able to talk? I’m Xander,” she said, attempting what the mind called a ‘smile’. Xander’s inner awareness suggested that she might have overreached and landed on ‘grimace’ instead. “Can I have a glass of water?”

“I know you’re not Xander,” said the old man. “Who are you?”

She laughed and the old man winced. She had no reason to lie to him. “I am Xander still, the same but different—more.”

He seemed to consider this for a moment. “Is Xander all right?” he said finally.

She thought for a moment. She felt no other presence in her head, but she knew she had not always been as she was now. “I am in Xander. Xander is in me. I feel fine. And thirsty.”

The old man looked at her for a while, then seemed to nod to himself. Her answer satisfied him so far, though the hyena could see that he had many more questions. Still, he turned and stepped out to get a glass of water. This was her chance.

Moving silently, she climbed up and opened the window. It was just large enough for her to slip through, out into the open air beyond. She tumbled down to the ground below and sniffed the air. 

Her mate was to the west.

*

Tor was, at that particular moment, kicking stones in the parking lot. He was bored. He wanted to run and hunt with his pack, and he really didn’t feel safe without his Alpha here. Stupid Heidi. Stupid Rhonda. Stupid Kyle.

Stupid Xander—

No! Ow. Owowowowow. Tor felt like his head was splitting in two. He shouldn’t think bad things about Alpha. Alpha would take care of him. Alpha would keep him safe. He held himself tightly, solid like a tree, just until the pain passed.

He was getting a bit annoyed, actually. He’d been waiting in this parking lot for two hours and no one had so much as sniffed out the door. They were all probably having sex. Oh god. What if they were all having sex together? He wouldn’t mind it so much if they hadn’t just left him STANDING in the freaking PARKING LOT!

He growled and kicked another rock.

And what was with Alpha choosing Kyle, anyway? Tor really hoped that it wasn’t just a proximity thing. Not that he was particularly pining for Xander or anything. He just would have liked to be an option at least.

Stupid Kyle.

It was probably just the fact that he was odd man out that was dragging him down. Kyle had Xander, and the wonder twins had each other, which was so totally not fair. Seriously. Why was he the one left high and dry by all of this?

He could just leave. He could just walk out of the parking lot, grab his car, and leave them here. Stranded. He should do that. He should so totally do that. But he wasn’t. God he was such a little bitch.

Maybe he could go get them? Except if they were having sex, and let’s be honest, what else would those four be doing, that would be really awkward. Well, not if he found Heidi and Rhonda. That would be hot, but they would probably hit him in a not-fun way. Walking in on Xander and Kyle on the other hand.

Ew. Not that they weren’t both very attractive guys and all, but Xander was Alpha. It would be like the time he walked in on his parents when he was nine.

Tor scowled and decided to kick a car tired instead of a rock. That was before his dad left and his mom started to look tired all the time. His big sister Josie and he tried to help her out as much as they could, but there was only so much they could do. He really hated his father. You didn’t run out on your pack like that.

Which was, of course, ultimately why he was still standing in that stupid parking lot. This sucked.

A rock clattered nearby. A rock that Tor didn’t kick. He whipped around and sniffed the air. Alpha!

Xander was walking by, about thirty-feet away, but he didn’t see Tor. He didn’t even look up. Tor growled. He might not be Kyle, but he was still an important member of the pack. He jogged over to Xander and jumped in front of him.

“Hey man, what’s up?” Tor didn’t smile but he did look at Xander meaningfully. His mom called those his puppy eyes, and he was definitely hoping to snag an extra cookie. Or just get back in the action. The non-sexual action.

He did not want to have sex with Kyle, dammit. Or Xander. Totally definitely not.

Xander didn’t respond exactly as Tor expected he would.

“You. Help me find my mate.” Xander had stopped and stood now, glaring. Tor felt the sudden urge to grovel. And maybe run. Because he might never have been real close to Xander before, but he definitely remembered that the guy spoke English, not caveman.

“You lost Kyle?”

“They took Kyle.”

“So where is he?”

“Inside. Near the library.”

“How do you know that?”

“I can feel him. We’re going.”

“Feel him how?”

“NOW!” Xander growled and grabbed Tor by the shirtfront. Tor stumbled to catch up with his torso. Okay. So maybe he should avoid pissing off the cave-Alpha for a while.

Xander wasn’t letting go of his shirt. He really liked this shirt.

Tor actually had to think about this for a minute. He supposed that was okay, it wasn’t like he needed his brain to move. But if Xander was here, and Kyle was still inside, and Xander had somehow “lost” Kyle, did that mean they didn’t have sex?

And why did he still feel safe, even when he was being dragged along by an angry Alpha?

Tor’s time for rumination was up as they hit the school entrance. He had to admire Xander’s focus, but it was kind of on the creepy side. Xander put him down and stalked over to the doors. Tor felt recognition skittering at the edges of his consciousness. He ignored it and followed his Alpha.

The halls of Sunnydale High were deserted, not a recalcitrant student or a straggling teacher in sight. Tor snuck along behind Xander, his nose filled with disinfectant and sweat and nice clean Alpha smell. He was, in fact, so caught up in smelling that he nearly crashed right into Xander, which would not have helped anything…

He looked at Xander’s face. It was tense, focused on something just past the edge of his senses. Tor held his breath and tried to “reach out with his feelings”. Okay, so he could feel a gaping maw of evil energy about a hundred feet to the north, and that was just disconcerting! But he couldn’t feel anything that would be of a particular interest to Xander, unless he had a Kyle homing beacon or something equally weird. 

Oh.

That would make sense, the Kyle homing beacon thing. It would explain why they were here, particularly, instead of still in the parking lot. Tor reached out with “The Force” and tried to sense Kyle. He couldn’t feel much, nothing like the swirly blackness of that other hole, but just a little ways away, he cold feel Kyle. It was faint, but there. Hopefully Xander could feel him better.

Just out of curiosity, he peeled his eyes open and looked over in the direction he had sensed the evil. His eyes tracked down the hall and landed on the doors to the Library. Weird. He was going to check up on that later.

He watched Xander for a sign of what they would do now. Xander twitched a little bit, focused more, then snapped out of it, looking over at Tor instead. He looked significantly in the direction of Kyle, motioned at the two of them, and pointed.

Apparently they weren’t going to use their words. 

They stalked over to Kyle’s classroom and stood outside the door. What was this, some kind of kooky hostage situation?

He looked over at the grim expression on Xander’s face. Yeah. It probably was. He took a deep breath and prepared to go in.

Which is exactly when all hell broke loose.

“Xander! Tor!” Heidi’s screech rang out through the empty halls as she ran up, hair sweaty and face flushed. “I got my backpack!”

The door to the room swung open from the inside, and the red head of Willow Rosenberg popped out, only to be popped back in by his Alpha’s fist.

Rhonda ran up, also sweaty. “Ready to go, guys?”

Seriously, couldn’t they see that this was a bad time?

Xander growled and stalked into the room. Tor glared at the two girls and followed. Of all of the times for them to stop having sex, they had to pick now, didn’t they. Seriously.

Heidi and Rhonda must have decided this was more interesting than more sex, because they followed him as he stepped over the insensate Willow body on the floor. 

The scene inside the room was…interesting, to say the very least. Xander stood in the center, growling in a way that promised some serious pain to whomever had taken his mate. Behind him skulked his reasonably faithful pack, and directly across the room, tied to a chair, and looking mighty happy to see them was Kyle. The only things standing between the Alpha and his mate were the librarian and Buffy the Bitchy Blonde, both armed with crossbows.

Crossbows? So it was some kind of weird ye olde hostage situation?

“I should have known you’d trick me,” said the librarian, and, really, that was just weird. What was he doing here?

“I told you, Giles,” said Bitchy, “not Xander.”

What was she talking about? Sure, he was all Cave-Xander, but Tor would be able to smell if this wasn’t his Alpha. This was the right Xander.

“You took my mate,” snarled Xander.

Aww, it was almost cute how that statement made Kyle blush.

The librarian stammered a bit. “Your mate?”

Tor let off a high cackle as Kyle turned a beautiful shade of mauve. Oh man, really? Mauve? Since when could he tell what color that was? Go away gay thoughts.

Xander glared more. “Let him go.”

Okay, Tor might not be the sharpest crayon in the box, but even he could see that those two weren’t going to let Kyle go. You don’t tie someone to a chair and then let them go just because the angry boyfriend shows up.

Heehee. Dirty.

And, apparently, they were going to fight now. Xander rushed the blonde before she could get a shot off, so Tor followed his example and tackled the school librarian. He was pretty sure this was borderline illegal, and could get him kicked out of school, but Alpha was always right, so Tor jumped and landed in a pile of limbs, the crossbow point getting very friendly with his navel.

He grabbed it and flung it away before it could get friendlier. Unfortunately, when it hit the ground it went off, shooting an arrow right into the exposed calf of Rhonda, who had been watching the fracas with glee. She howled in pain, and the librarian used Tor’s distraction to cuff him across the face. He retaliated with a head butt.

Over on the other side of the room, Xander and Buffy had entered into an all out death match. Seriously, it was like watching American Gladiators up close, not that Tor would ever admit to watching that show (or the action figures hidden under his bed). They were hitting each other with anything to hand, from trashcans to desks to their fists, which ultimately seemed to be the most effective. 

Tor decided enough was enough. He knocked out the librarian (it only took a few more punches) and raced over to Kyle.

Sometimes, you had to use desperate measures, and the only way to get Alpha to notice anything was to dangle Kyle in front of his nose. He grabbed his knife (thank god for the criminal lifestyle) and hacked through the ropes. Damn these things were thick. He grimaced – his knife was all dull now. Still, Kyle was freed and that was enough to get them out. 

“Alpha! Let’s go!” he yelled at the blur of fists in the corner. Slowly Xander emerged and pushed Buffy back down.

Tor looked around. Okay, they were mostly here and accounted for. Alpha was still being weird, and Kyle’s legs were asleep, but that wasn’t bad. He may have shot Rhonda in the leg, but she seemed okay-ish. 

Heidi was glaring at him. He might want to avoid the lesbians for a while. They could be kinda scary. Kinda really scary.

They all started hobbling out the door, until a certain redhead sat up and looked around.

“What’s going on?” said Willow.

Tor considered it an act of kindness when he knocked her out again.


End file.
